


Waffle Cones

by paranoids



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Found Family, PURELY PLATONIC, Sibling Bonding, Siblings, Step-siblings, Steve is mentioned, all around just a tooth-achey fluff fest, and so is jancy, ice cream is consumed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 20:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16226834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoids/pseuds/paranoids
Summary: Jonathan takes El out for ice cream. Conversation ensues, and the two learn a little bit more about one another - including what they mean to each other.





	Waffle Cones

Jonathan and El wound up at Scoops Ahoy.

Hopper had dropped her off at the Byers’ earlier that day on his way to work, afraid to leave her alone in the cabin after the last time; the time she ran away and came back with a new sister and a punk wardrobe. (Hop was thankful, he’d said, that that was the worst of it.) But Joyce had to take Will to therapy, which left Jonathan alone to watch over Eleven.

Jonathan hadn’t really been sure what to do, but figured the easiest way he could relate to a 14 year-old girl was through sugar.

_“Hey, do you want to get some ice cream?”_

“Hey, Steve.”

Scoops Ahoy was pretty crowded for a Friday afternoon and, of course, Steve was working the counter. He seemed to always be working these days. Steve turned and gave an acknowledging nod. “What’s up, Byers?” His eyes brightened when he noticed the small telekinetic at his side. “And El!” Steve smiled. “What are you two doing here?”

“Uh, getting ice cream. … It’s an ice cream shop.”

“Oh, right.” Steve looked crestfallen, as if he had just become aware of his own reality. “What can I get you guys?”

El looked hesitant, wary of spending Jonathan’s hard-earned money. But Scoops Ahoy was something he was happy to splurge on. He gave her an assuring wink. “Get whatever you want.”

She ordered two scoops of fudge chocolate in a waffle cone. Jonathan ordered vanilla.

The pair sat down across from each other at a table toward the back of the shop. Jonathan observed, with amusement, El devour her ice cream.

“Steve. Do you like him?”

Jonathan shrugged. “He’s alright, I guess.”

“I just mean … you’re dating Nancy, but before you, Steve was dating her. Isn’t that weird?”

“Um. Yeah, yeah I guess it’s a little weird. But … it was even weirder before.”

El looked up expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.

Jonathan leaned in and lowered his voice. “Steve didn’t like me very much.”  

“But he doesn’t really like you now.”

Jonathan let out a laugh. “I guess not. But he tolerates me.”

“Tolerate?”

“Yeah, tolerate. It means, uh … it means to put up with. Even when you aren’t totally happy about something, you deal with it anyways. Something, or someone.”

El nodded.  

They were quiet, El focused on her dessert. A staticky version of a Madonna song played in the background of the store and El, almost without realizing, began bopping her head to the rhythm.

Jonathan laughed.

“You like Madonna?”

She glanced over at him and nodded.

“I think Will does secretly too,” Jonathan whispered.

“Yeah,” El said. “He does.”

“Do you guys, you know, listen to music?”

El squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. “No… we make Eggos. Mostly we just talk.”

“About what?” Jonathan’s curiosity got the better of him and the words spilled from his mouth instantaneously.

There was a moment’s pause. Then -

“You,” El said bluntly.

Jonathan shifted in his seat.

“Uh, me? Why me?”

El had a small and playful smile on her lips. Jonathan’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you… are you being sarcastic?”

Eleven’s smile grew.

Jonathan couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “You are!”

Jonathan shook his head. “I get it, you want to keep it a secret.”

El shrugged. “No, it’s not that.”  

Jonathan’s smile slowly faded, hesitating. Then, “do you ever talk about… you know…”

“The upside down.” It wasn’t a question, it was a confirmation. “Sometimes,” she added. “Not much.”

Jonathan itched with curiosity but didn’t want to press. It was his first time really talking to Eleven one-on-one – no mom, no Hopper, no Will – and he didn’t want to screw it up by being too pushy.

“We talk about school. Movies and comics. He shows me things. … We talk about Mike,” El said distractedly. “And Dustin and Lucas. And Max. But mostly Mike.”

“How is Mike?”

“Good.” She paused. “But he’s worried. He’s always worried about us.”

Jonathan remembered the sickening feeling of terror watching his brother thrash around tied to a bed. He didn’t know what had happened to Eleven, only that she had saved them all, including his brother, but he imagined it didn’t come without a cost. He’d seen her sobbing into his mother’s arms inside a kiddie pool, after a trip to the void to find Will. He supposed those kinds of images would always haunt him; a part of him would always be waiting for Will to start convulsing, or for Eleven’s nose to run red, or for something terrifying to come out of the woodwork and disrupt the peaceful life he was now leading.

“I understand that.”

“You worry about Will.”

“Yeah, I do,” Jonathan admitted. “And you. And mom. And Nancy.”

“Nancy?”  

“Yeah. She’s tough,” he smiles, “but I still worry.”

El nodded and Jonathan was almost taken aback by the amount of compassion he could feel just from the look on her face.   
“Do you think it’s weird,” El asked between licks of her ice cream cone, “that your girlfriend is my boyfriend’s sister?”

The word “girlfriend” sent a shock up his spine, but in the best way. It was still a new term to him, and he liked the way it sounded.

“I guess I haven’t really thought about it. Why?”

“Because they’re brother and sister, and so are we?”

Jonathan couldn’t hide the sheepish grin that came from El owning him as a brother. He’d known for some time now that she saw Will that way, but he’d never imagined himself included in that formula.

Words escaped him, so he merely shrugged.

“Nancy is beautiful,” El said after a time, wiping the chocolate from the corners of her mouth.

“Yeah, yeah she is.”

“So is Mike,” she added.

Jonathan blurted out a laugh.

El smiled up at him. He smiled back.

“I knew it,” Jonathan remarked.

El looked up. Waited.

“All I needed was ice cream, the key to your friendship. I think… you’re starting to like me.”

“Starting?” El questioned. “I like you. I always liked you.” She paused. “You haven’t always like me, though. I scare you.”

A big blue scrunchie held up El’s wild curly hair. She was in baggy overalls, a collared shirt with a wild purple print, and scuffed-up converse. She looked as innocent as any other 14-year-old girl.

“Scared. Now you’re the one using the wrong tense.”

They sat in a long silence and Jonathan noted the comfortability of it. It was as if he had been right on the cusp of settling into being El’s brother and all he needed was just this tiniest time alone with her to cement his role.

Behind them, Steve let out a deep sigh, wiping down other plastic tables with a rag.

“I like Steve too,” El whispered.

Jonathan smiled. “It’s hard to help, isn’t it?”

El had finished her ice cream and was wiping off the remnants on her hands. She looked up at Jonathan, her eyes large, her smile small, and Jonathan forgot there was a time he hadn’t known her as a sister.

“But you’re my favorite,” El whispered.

“And you’re mine.” 


End file.
